Advice?

I can't imagine how frustrated you are. I wish I had answers but I only know the standard response to unstable blood sugar and that is probably what you're doing. Eating smaller meals more frequently and not overloading on carbs (and always having protein if you do eat carbs), carrying candy or glucose tabs are what all the websites say to do when the blood sugar swings low and high.

You're right. If it were only high blood sugar, you can use diet and exercise or diet and meds but when it bounces like this for no apparent reason, I really don't know what doctors tell you.

Really, at this point, I think only an endo should be treating you for the blood sugar - regardless of the outcome of the thyroid test although 'maybe' if you have to take thyroid meds, this could help the blood sugar, too. I don't know.

The pancreas is misfiring. When your blood sugar is low for you (in the 70's), your pancreas is putting out insulin as it should but maybe it's too much. When your blood sugar is too high (like the 198), either there's not enough insulin or the body cells have become insulin resistant and can't let the glucose into the cells as is supposed to happen. Either way, the blood sugar is unstable.

I don't know what the endo will do to sort this out, to be honest. I wish I could give better answers.

Brenda, you sound very stressed out about this and stress sure raises my blood sugar. Are you taking any diabetes medication that could cause your blood sugar to drop dramatically? I've had some medications do that. I was given Actos, took one pill, and spent the rest of the day eating non-stop to try to keep my blood sugar above 60. I was getting frightened and was so happy when it wore off.

It's pretty common to get different readings close together. I've even measured it just a minute apart and it was different. But the numbers are usually in the same ball park.

Lanie will know for sure but I believe the Reli-On meters are considered good. Not sure about that. I use the Breeze 2 meter and love it. If you are on Medicare, it will pay for your meter and strips so they are no cost to you. (You mentioned having grandchildren so that's why I mentioned this.)

I hope you get some answers and start feeling better again.

Sherrine

Sherrine I have never been diagnosed with diabetes, but I have been diagnosed with Hypoglycemia, I just had my fasting blood sugar checked it was 91 and my A1c was 5.7 or 5.9 so my doctor said I am not a diabetic, but that sometime during the 3 months my blood sugar had to spike a couple of times. So I don't take any diabetic medication, in fact if I did my sugar would probably drop into coma levels(I have gone down to the 30's before with no medication)

Lanie, so I could be a diabetic 1, isn't that the worst type of diabetes to have? Wow I am overwhelmed.

Sherrine I have an appointment with my PCP on Thursday we will discuss what is next, which I am assuming will be an Endocrinologist.

I am eating low carb and usually don't eat after 7pm, so I will have no food for about 12 hours and test my sugar and it will sometimes be 198, so the norm for me is no longer the norm. Typically before if I ate carbs within two hours my sugar would drop very low, so whenever I was on a low carb diet I rarely ever had an attack.

Two years ago I lost 83 pounds by a low carb diet and exercising, after some traumatic issues in my life I quit dieting, and gained over half of the weight back, I am really wondering if I messed my body up.

Hopefully my Doctor can shed some light on what the issue could be, I just want to feel better and with a level that will never stay stable(and I have been eating very good) I never feel good.

Thank you for your input, I truly appreciate it.

Thank you Lanie, and I don't at all take you as trying to be a Doctor, you are just trying to help me, and I appreciate it. Today my sugar has been very good.

Unfortunately I do suffer from an anxiety disorder, and anxiety and sugar attacks can mimic one another(or at least mine do) I have some major environmental stressors in my life right now, so after an altercation with my Daughter I thought for sure my sugar was jumping up or down, it was great- a nice 96, so I knew it was a panic attack and took something for it.

Because of my fear with my health, I thought having my daughter help me would be good, but it has been nothing but more stress on my life that I don't need right now, I don't really know if stress can cause issues in my blood sugar, my Mother believes it does. So I have to ask my daughter to leave, and I did and she just took off with my house keys.

I did depend on her to take me to my appointments, I would give her gas money, but I have more bills when she is here and she is a complete slob and I have a touch of OCD and this drives me crazy.

Sorry if I am rambling, but believe me Lanie I know you are only trying to give me advice, and I believe your advice is great, and I appreciate it.

My Mother has type II diabetes, very great numbers, she also takes metformin. My Grandmother however had type I diabetes, which I didn't know till tonight when I talked to my Mother. My Grandmother lived for a very long time, so I guess even with type 1(if that is even the case)your life can still go on. For some reason just the thought of having it scares me badly.

Thank you for your support, it means so much!

Thank you Lanie, I did do a GTT years ago, it was a 3 hour test, I did very well for the first 2 hours, but my doctor at the time said the 3rd hour my sugar went into seriously low numbers, he said my body was producing plenty of insulin he just didn't know what it was doing with it, he then said about my eating low carbs etc.

I seemed to do pretty well for a while(I was in my early 30's when I had this test done) I am now 47 soon to be 48(tomorrow).

Maybe that will be my PCP's next move, as much as I hate sitting in a lab for hours, it would be worth it to know exactly what my body is up to.

Hope you have a wonderful night Lanie!

Thank you Lanie, how did you know it was my birthday?

We had a get together at my Moms, my Son's birthday was yesterday, mine was today. Today is the first day I've eaten bad in quite awhile, and I hate the way I feel. I had birthday cake and ice cream, I take my blood sugar and it is 131, I thought it would be off the charts. I did have a great day today, I'm the big 48, my how the years fly by.

I will see my regular Doctor tomorrow, I will bring my log and my meter and see what is the next move, I already called my Insurance company and they have one Endocrinologist 25 miles away so that isn't too bad.

I fear things like Pancreatic cancer or some weird un-treatable condition, I hate even typing that statement, but hopefully I can get some answers soon.

As much as I hate the long sugar tests, I hope she will order me one.

Thank you for thinking of me on my Birthday!

HA! I didn't remember that , but I will keep you posted.

Again thank you for your awesome support in a very foreign situation for me.

Ok, wow! The doctor feels the anxiety is causing the unstable blood sugar. Ok, then getting the panic/anxiety under control is needed. Besides meds, has she recommended any other kind of therapy?

I think if you continue your eating plan, that should help. Still, I believe you need to be careful of your blood sugar. I'm not entirely convinced that the blood sugar problems are only related to the panic disorder, so please be careful. The thing is, if worrying about your blood sugar and health in general is a cause (or one of the causes) of the anxiety, that's not good and seems to make a vicious circle. It's hard, like if someone say to 'stop worrying' about something, then you end up worrying more!

I don't know how you can get rid of all this but I hope the doctor is guiding you for the panic disorder with appropriate therapy.

I hope the weather clears up and warms up. I know that will be a great help!

Good morning! I have tried to read more about anxiety and low blood sugar because I previously thought that anxiety caused only high blood sugar. Here is one thing I found online among others; it's a blog but I think it addresses this pretty well: blogs.psychcentral.com/panic/2014/02/low-blood-sugar-and-panic-attacks-how-are-they-related/.

Many years ago I was going through a period of time where anxiety tried to rule my life (along with a slump, not quite full-blown depression) and after many lab tests, the doctor said it was anxiety and I was prescribed an anti-anxiety drug. In those days, I didn't know about my blood sugar and I have no idea what it was or even if it was tested. I know the tests ruled out heart and other physical conditions though. I would guess that among the lab tests that they would have tested my blood sugar and I wish now that I knew if they had and what the results were.

Since the time that my blood sugar has been a problem (about 10 years ago), it's always reacted to trauma (physical and emotional), sickness, etc. by going high, so now I'm understanding another aspect of how anxiety can cause it go lower.

But since your mom has diabetes and you had the very low drop at the end of the GTT, I still think you have a problem with carb metabolism; that is, if you eat too many carbs at one time, your blood sugar goes too high. Maybe your anxiety does contribute to some of the unstable blood sugar readings, but I do feel it's not the only cause.

I'm glad that the physician is taking this seriously. First and foremost, I think the anxiety and the accompanying symptoms need to be addressed. But I also think you should still see an endocrinologist if your insurance will cover it or even if you have to see one just once or twice on your own.

I don't know how to help you with the panic/anxiety. In my case, I was relieved it was not my heart. I was fearful I was having heart problems and that made me more anxious. Then as I learned more about anxiety, I understood that anxiety would not kill me and since during the worst part of this I was afraid of dying, this realization really helped - that I was not going to keel over and die. It was hard to control the fear that I might faint though when I felt the anxiety trying to take over, so I tried to breathe more regularly and distract myself in the moment, doing anything that could take my attention away. It could have been walking, reading, TV, doing something in the kitchen, laundry, having a conversation with someone, sweeping out the garage, anything. (This was before we had email and the Internet so readily available to us.) During the worst times, I couldn't lie down in bed because somehow I thought if I put my head down that I would go to sleep and die, so many nights I took my pillow and comforter into the living room and sat half propped up on the couch and would fall asleep there. At least I slept. One particular night at the beginning of all this, I had to call my doctor's emergency number and spoke to a nurse. I told her how I was feeling (well, now I know it was anxiety) and she had me take my pulse and count to her over the phone for about a minute. Now, I realize she not only was looking for my pulse but also I "think" the act of counting helped calm me, and she knew that. She also told me to take 2 Benadryl. Benadryl is the same as Dramamine, histamines that can stop motion sickness and make you drowsy. This was a big help. Eventually, I came out of that troubling period. I did have two or three sessions with a therapist but I felt it was a waste of time - I didn't like the guy and I didn't feel like he really helped.

I hope you get a handle on all this. I know it's complicated because it involves everything (health, family, situation, work, the world....) but as you come to realize that you really can be more in control of things, I think you will be able to feel better.

(Wow, this was a long post. Are you still awake? ) You can come here and post anytime! I hope you have a good weekend and that the weather is improving. It's been cold here, down to the 20's and 30's but not the snow that the northeast has had!